Eriol Hiiragizawa (柊沢 エリオル, Hiiragizawa Erioru) is a fictional character in CLAMP's anime and manga series Cardcaptor Sakura. Eriol transfers to Tomoeda Elementary from England soon after events of the Clow Card Arc and plays a main role in the events of Sakura Cards Arc. In the Clear Card Arc, he is a supporting character.

Contents

Physical Appearance

Eriol has dark blue hair, snow white skin, and large gray eyes underneath his rectangular glasses. His outfit changes depending on the situation. When he attends school, he wears the school's uniform and a book bag. When using his immensely powerful magical powers, he wears blue robes and a large black hat, both sporting unique yellow decorations. When at his home, he wears casual clothing.

Personality

Eriol is usually a serious and determined person. He also has a mischievous personality, and has to restrain himself from making wisecracks when Sakura and Li are "so slow", as he tells Sakura in Episode 55 (as the Cheshire Cat). This is also the same for Kero and Yue. Eriol enjoys himself when using his magic to put Sakura in various situations. These situations can be anywhere from dangerous to being quite so comical, such as when he puts her in a pit filled with stuffed sheep.

Eriol's life experience, with his access to Clow Reed's memories, means that he is significantly more knowledgeable and more mature than all his classmates. He is skilled in basketball, cooking, academics, piano, and art. He is more literate in Japanese writing than Syaoran is, despite coming from a country that uses a completely different writing system.

Tomoyo, as well, implies him to be "kind" when watching Sakura and Syaoran pinky-promise.

Plot

Sakura Card Arc

Eriol transfers to Tomoeda Elementary from England soon after Sakura Kinomoto convinces Yue in the "Final Judgment" and becomes Master of the Clow Cards. He quickly befriends Sakura, a feat which persuades Syaoran Li, who becomes both jealous and suspicious of Eriol, to postpone his return to Hong Kong. It was quite obvious Eriol had bigger intentions towards Sakura.

When watching Sakura and Syaoran pinky-promise, Eriol tells Tomoyo, "You're always doing that. Watching Sakura-san with kind eyes." Tomoyo smiles kindly and responds: "The same as you, Hiiragizawa-kun", implying that Tomoyo felt her love for Sakura was similar to Eriol's (even if it is a more platonic "love" for Sakura; and, that she regarded him as "kind".)

Eriol with Sakura and a jealous Syaoran.

Eriol also befriends Takashi Yamazaki and becomes his partner-in-crime, agreeing with whatever he makes up. He and Takashi respond to each other's cues perfectly together reinforce the supposed validity of their story by both appearing to have detailed knowledge of the subject, thwarting Chiharu's usual efforts to dispel of the whole lie.

At the same time, a series of magical disasters force Sakura to gradually convert the Clow Cards into "Sakura Cards" or "Star Cards", which draw from her own magical energy rather than the dwindling amount of magic left in them by Clow Reed, although this had the drawback of causing Sakura to faint every time she transformed a Clow Card into a Sakura Card.

What Sakura does not know (until the series' end) is that Eriol himself creates these situations. During each situation, he is seen from afar observing the action, often accompanied by his guardians, Spinel Sun and Ruby Moon. All three of them live in a house that was formerly occupied by Clow Reed himself.

Eventually, Eriol confronts Sakura and reveals himself to be the reincarnation of Clow Reed, creator of the Cards which leaves Sakura, Tomoyo, Kero and Syaoran stunned at the revelation. He challenges Sakura to defeat him by converting the final Cards, The Light and The Dark, which would prevent Tomoeda from being permanently plunged into darkness. The sheer force causes Tomoyo to fall asleep while Syaoran barely manages to hold on with Sakura being the only one unaffected by the change.

With his guardians occupying the attention of Sakura's own guardians, Yue and Cerberus, Eriol uses his magic to hinder Sakura. Eventually she manages to convert Light and Dark with the help of Cerberus and Yue, who fused with Sakura's wand to make it more powerful, and Syaoran, who provided moral support and the confidence to endure, even though his attempt to aid her with his magic resulted in him passing out in the manga. In the anime, Syaoran survives long enough to help Sakura change the Light and Dark Cards, breaking Eriol's spell once and for all.

In the manga, after Sakura overcomes this final challenge, Eriol puts Sakura through one more task; he asks her to divide his power in half between himself and her father, Fujitaka Kinomoto, who is the other reincarnation of Clow Reed. This at last gives Eriol the one thing he has wanted his entire life: to no longer be the most powerful sorcerer in the world. This wish was probably due to the consequences of Clow Reed's desire for Yuuko Ichihara to stay alive, which led to the events of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle. No longer able to keep people away from the battle site using magic, Eriol invites everyone to his home where he explains his actions. Stating that the challenges were to give Sakura a reason to have to change the cards into Sakura Cards, which made it easier and safer for her to transform them then it would have been without a good reason.

At Eriol's house, it is revealed that he was working in conjunction with Kaho Mizuki, who he met during her travels in Europe, and when she was in college. When Sakura, Syaoran, Tomoyo, and Cerberus go off to help Ruby Moon and Spinel in the kitchen, Eriol steps outside to join Yue, who was still feeling that Clow abandoned him. He feels hurt that Clow forced him to go through the pain of having to choose another master and believes that Clow has been alive all along. Eriol clarifies that he is not Clow Reed, but just has his memories, and that Clow will never return. Eriol then explains Clow's reasoning and knowing that Yue's heart is broken from the loss of Clow Reed he helps Yue come to terms with Clow's death and his decision to reincarnate himself. With his task complete, Eriol returns to England with his trusted associate Kaho, Spinel and Ruby Moon.

Clear Card Arc

Eriol has moved back to England. There, he perceives the increase of Sakura's magic power and informed Syaoran of her supremely powerful magic, stating, "...great power will bring great unhappiness to its owner".

With the assistance of Yelan Li, Eriol investigates the mysterious "D" level magician, Yuna Kaito and the British magic association from which he was excommunicated. Yelan had tried to use her own brand of powerful magic to discern the true extent of Kaito's powers, but was unable to. Eriol is only able to find out that Yuna had stolen a powerful magic object from the association.

He later communicates with Yue and Cerberus, revealing to them the truth about Kaito and that the Clear Cards being a manifestation of Sakura's powers growing. The communication is interrupted by Kaito who after a magical confrontation with Eriol, both end up with their magic tools damaged.

Powers and Abilities

MagicalPower-Level: As his reincarnation, Eriol retains most of the memories, personality traits, and supremely powerful magical abilities of Clow Reed himself. As such he is a remarkably formidable sorcerer, able to effortlessly defeat high-ranking magic users even without the aid of the cards. Yuna D. Kaito states that "...he is one the greatest magicians alive."

He also displays the ability to animate various objects through the use of magic, as shown when he is testing whether Sakura is worthy to be the next master of the cards. Specific examples of this are when he brings a teddy bear to life, causing it to grow and gain immense strength in the process; and when he used his power to animate some children's rides in a play area.

In his duel with Sakura, he demonstrated the power to unleash multiple bursts of scarlet energy from his staff at great speed, and to greatly amplify the powers of others so they could overpower their opponents with ease. Eriol also has the ability to levitate, though rarely uses this ability. He was able to cast a darkness over the entire Tomoeda area, rendering any non-magical being unconscious forever. The spell was later dispelled.

As reincarnation of Clow, he is the only one besides Sakura that is able to restrain the powers of Cerberus and Yue, as well as the Clow Cards, being able to cancel the magic of The Windy when Sakura tries to use it against him.

Magic Circle: Eriol inherited Clow's magic circle who combines the magic of the sun and the moon. Eriol shows to be able to see through great distances using his magic circle.

Spiritual Awareness: Eriol also demonstrates an ability to see spirits, in a similar manner to Touya Kinomoto, as he was able to see the spirit of Nadeshiko Kinomoto at Tomoeda Elementary.

Creation: Eriol was able to create two guardians, Spinel Sun and Ruby Moon, designed to be counterparts of Clow's guardians, Cerberus and Yue.

Staff

Eriol wields a magical staff created by Clow Reed. Like Sakura's Wand, the staff is able to remains in a dormant key form while not in use, being released while Eriol uses an special chant: "Key which hides the power of darkness. reveal your true form to me. I, Eriol, command thee through our contract. Release!"

Cardcaptors

Eriol's name is changed to Eli Moon and the scene where he kisses Sakura's hand is removed.

English Incantation

I call upon the power of the day and the night

Sun and darkness unleash your might

Release!

Japanese Incantation

Key that hides the power of the dark

Show your true form to me

I, Eriol, command you under our contract

Release!

Trivia

Although he physically looks Sakura's age, he is in reality much older having used magic to remain young so as to be Sakura's classmate when the time came to transform the Clow Cards. His true physical age as of the Clear Card Arc is "unknown", he may have celebrated birthdays since.

His birthday, being in March, comes before Sakura's birthday of April 1st, where the series also approximately begins. Per the Japanese school system , which begins around April 1st and ends in late March, his presented "age" may reflect whichever grade Sakura is currently in, while not turning a year older until the next year's March.

In the manga, Eriol referred to Syaoran as his "darling relative" or "my cute little descendant"; this is absent from the anime.

In CLAMP's Angelic Layer, there is a school called "Eriol Academy". However, CLAMP is known to make inter-textual references within their series. There is no evidence to suggest any link between the character and the school.

In the manga, Eriol's powers are ineffective against Fujitaka Kinomoto, Sakura's father. This is because Clow Reed's soul split into two spirits; one was Eriol, who held the memories of his past life as Clow, while the second was Fujitaka who possessed none of the memories. In the anime, this revelation is scrapped and no reference is made to there being another reincarnation other than Eriol; Fujitaka is also affected by Eriol's sleep spell in the anime.

He has made statements multiple times of "I’m not Clow anymore.", showing a preference for being seen as a separate being from Clow Reed.

In the manga, when he's asked why he created Spinel and Ruby, Eriol replies that he "...knew that Yue and Cerberus would attack him at Tokyo Tower, simply to protect Sakura from harm." He also states that if he hadn't created Spinel or Ruby, his two former creations would have been searching for the Clow within him.